Slot Tips

Slot Tips

When it comes to playing slots online, there are plenty of sites that will claim they can tell you how to win at slots. What they do not tell you is that all slot games run on a Random Number Generator that ensures the results of every spin are random and incalculable. This means that only a limited number of betting systems or strategies have any effect on the likelihood of you coming out ahead at the end of a slots session. Nevertheless, there are certain slot tips that every player should know before playing online. These tips aren’t for during game play, nor do they promise to make you a winner. However, they will ensure that you don’t waste real money needlessly and that you get the best possible odds.

• Check the credentials of the casino you want to play at before registering. The most important tip I can give you (and this applies to other casino games as well as slots) is to make sure you only ever choose reputable, honest casinos to play at. Make sure that the software the casino uses is verified and tested, and that regular audits are done to ensure the payout percentages are reported and accurate before you deposit. You’ll never get very far by playing at casinos with faulty software or unfair business practices as, even if you win, the likelihood of ever seeing your winnings is relatively low. How do you verify this information

• Look for a license and see who issued it and where (this should be easily discernible). Put the information into Google or Wikipedia to find out if the licensing entity has regulations and enforces them. In some jurisdictions, getting a license to operate an online casino is as simple as applying and paying a fee. You want a casino that has a license from a jurisdiction where there are rules & standards that must be abided by in order to get and keep a license.

• There should be information related to who tests the software for the casino to ensure it operates in a random, fair manner. Technical Systems Testing and iTech Labs are examples of 3^rd party system and RNG testers, though there are others. If this is not clearly posted, even at the bottom of the Home page, do not play at that casino.

• Plug the name of the casino into a search engine but with a modifier like ‘complaints’ or ‘rogue’. If the casino has a habit of not paying out, has ever defrauded someone, or is unresponsive to customer complaints you’ll see them on blacklists or find posts related to their mistreatment of players. This is usually a good indication as to whether or not this casino is as trustworthy as it appears.

• Look at the ‘return to player’ payout percentage. The payout percentage is the average of total cash bet that ends up being paid back to players. For instance, if the payout percentage for a particular slot is 98%, then 98% of all the money bet on that game ends up going back to the players. This doesn’t mean that every player gets back 98% of what they bet. Rather, some players will lose everything and some players will win a lot, but the combined total of all the wins is about 98% of the total amount the casino took in from that game (after all, they are running a business). This percentage is determined by the coding of the game. Because slots run on a random number generator, the wins and losses for any given month will be random. However, by looking at the data for a specific period of time, an average percentage can be calculated. The higher this number is, the better off you are.

Because of the randomness of slots, it’s to be expected that the payout percentage will vary throughout the year. Interestingly, this also means that a slot could randomly award more during a given month than usual, putting the payout percentage at higher than 100% for a short span of time. This means that during that particular month, the casino actually loses money on that game. Keep this in mind when visiting different forums online and looking for gambling information. When slots are running higher than average, somebody usually says something about it!

Of course, it’s important that the payout percentage that’s published for a casino is correct. It doesn’t do you any good if a casino says the payout is 98%, when they’re lying. This is why Tip #1 is so important. Fair and accredited casinos will have an independent auditor that checks the payout percentage for accuracy. Look on the homepage or ‘About’ section of the casino’s website for a certificate proving they are audited in this fashion.

1. Look at the pay table before being lured in by flashy graphics. There are plenty of fun, interactive slots out there, many of which are in 3D and offer lots of interesting features. However, this sometimes lures players in when they should be playing a slot that offers a better payout table. The number of combinations that can win, the range of betting, whether or not it has multipliers, and the payout per symbol are all factors you should look at. Just like in poker, a Wild can act as almost any other symbol, so games with expanding or sticky wilds can be especially profitable. A scatter is a symbol that will increase the wins of any active paylines associated with it and in many cases are needed to trigger a bonus round, so look for those too. Bonus levels can be particularly good for racking up credits. However, ask yourself how likely it is that you’ll get to play the bonus round at all. For instance, a bonus that requires 3 matching symbols in the 2^nd position of reels 1, 3, and 5 is likely to be a bit harder to trigger than one that just requires 3 scatters anywhere on the reels.

Of course, some very flashy, impressive games do have good paytables. The point is just that you should check this out beforehand so that you know what to expect. Not all slots are created equal and it’s up to you to look at the pay table before being visually captivated by the animations and theme, or other features that simply don’t pay up in the end.

1. Play in ‘free play’ mode before using real money.

Sure, sometimes we want to just dive right in and start making money, right? However, one of the best ways to get a feel for how well you’ll do when playing at a specific slot is to test drive it in a free play or practice mode first. Even if the payout table and bonus features look very attractive, you may find that the slot doesn’t seem to live up to its promise. The house always wins, as they say, but some slots are a little looser than others. The best way to find this out is to play before you pay.  There are plenty of sites out there that offer free slots with no registration. This will give you an idea as to what kind of slot you’re looking for , and further informs you as to the developer that you might want to look for when choosing a casino. Alternatively, if you have already narrowed down your list of potential casino operators to a few that you trust to be safe and fair places to play, you may want to register with those casinos to try out their games. Registration itself is free, and once you’ve signed up most casinos will allow you to play all of their games in a demo mode. The game will operate in exactly the same manner in free mode as it does when you’ve deposited money. In this way, you can both get a feel for a specific slot and confirm whether or not that casino is one you want to play at.

1. Ask yourself, “What jackpots are offered by the game, and are any of them progressive?” Every slot machine has some type of jackpot, or highest amount that can be won on a single spin, associated with it. Some slots offer only one fixed jackpot that can be won. Others are linked to multiple jackpots, and still others are linked to a progressive jackpot. Moreover, some jackpots are hit routinely and others remain un-triggered for months. Find out what type of jackpot is available and what its hit frequency is. While the likelihood of losing your entire bankroll remains the same for all slots with a comparable payout percentage, the amount that can be won on a progressive slot is much higher. If you’re going to risk losing your own hard-earned cash, you might as well choose a game that offers the potential for a bigger reward. The types of slot jackpots are as follows:

• Fixed. With fixed jackpots, the absolute highest that can be won is always the same. If the slot says the jackpot pays out $10,000, then $10,000 is the most that can be won on any single spin. Note that you can still bu ild a bank roll that is higher than this amount through regular gameplay. These are the most common type of jackpot, but tend to be less popular in general.

• Progressives. A progressive is any jackpot that is continually growing while waiting to be hit. The way it works, for every bet that a person wagers on a progressive slot, a tiny portion of their bet gets contributed to the jackpot. As more people play and make more wagers, the jackpot increases progressively. The size of the jackpot depends on how long it has been since it was hit and how many people are wagering on that slot. Progressive jackpots that are linked to more than one slot tend to increase more quickly because more games are associated with it, and more people are playing. One a progressive is hit, it defaults to a base set amount and begins growing again.

• Multi-level progressives. Multi-level progressives work exactly like regular progressives, with the exception that the tiny portion culled from every person’s wager is divided into more than one jackpot. For example, let’s say that .06 gets taken from every dollar wagered. Instead of that .06 going to one progressive jackpot it is split so that .03 goes to the mega-jackpot and .02 and .01 go to 2 smaller jackpots. This means there are multiple jackpots that can be hit and they will be growing at different rates.

Be aware that while some jackpots are triggered randomly, most of them will require a specific combination of symbols and that you be betting the maximum in order to hit them.  This means that the best way you can help yourself is to find an online casino that offers slots with a reasonable wagering range for your budget. Then you can bet the maximum without investing your entire life savings into the venture.

Those are the 5 best slot tips I can give you. As you can see, the best advice applies to considerations you should have before you ever spend a dime playing online. While it may seem like a hassle to go through the effort of investigating the casino, looking for payout percentages, comparing pay tables, and so forth, remember that it’ll be worth it in the end when you’re building up a bankroll while others are just watching theirs dwindle away. If you haven’t signed up for a casino yet, or happen to be looking for a better one, all of the casinos we promote on our site are secure and fair places to play, with a variety of slots and jackpots available. Also remember, just because you’ve been playing at a specific casino for a long time, you always have the option of signing up with another, better casino.